For many under 35 year-olds looking for homes in the private rented sector (PRS), sharing with others is often their only option. High rents mean more people need to share, and to share for longer, even if they are earning a decent wage.

For those young people claiming benefits, the ‘shared accommodation rate’ (SAR – the level housing benefit for people aged 34 and under) means that sharing is the only affordable option, and can be a good option, bringing with it benefits for both tenants and landlords.

Whilst Crisis is not suggesting that sharing is the solution for everybody, it is certainly part of the answer. Tenants can increase their social network, acquire new independent living, and be better off each week as a result of cheaper rent and shared utility costs in shared housing.

As the SAR is to be extended to social housing in 2019, a culture shift is required in how shared housing is viewed both by social landlords and their potential tenants.

Sharing and single homeless people

Crisis has worked closely with organisations who have recognised the potential of sharing as a housing solution for single people in housing need. With the help of DCLG funding, Crisis administered the Sharing Solutions programme . This enabled Help-to-Rent projects around the country to support homeless people limited by the SAR to access and sustain accommodation by trialling models of shared housing including:

• Training tenancies where people with limited experience of managing a tenancy receive housing support
• Lodgings placements where hosts and lodgers are matched and supported
• Lead tenant and peer mentor models where tenants support the shared household and project

Through the experience of these projects, Crisis has learned what makes shared housing work, and established best practice and key principles for services supporting and managing shared tenancies in the private sector.

What about the social sector?

The landscape is changing. From 2019, LHA (Local Housing Allowance – currently housing benefit for people in the private rented sector) rules will be applied to the amount of benefit social housing tenants can claim. For many single under-35s, the SAR will not cover the cost of one-bedroom social housing. As a result, social landlords are considering their options for supporting under-35 tenants through increasing employment support; income maximisation programmes; lowering rents; and delivering shared housing models.

Models of shared social housing

Crisis is aware of a handful of existing models of shared housing using social housing stock. These models differ according to whether the landlord is a housing association or local authority, the type of tenure available for use, number of tenants sharing, the type of stock being used and whether occupancy is of a temporary nature or not.

Some social landlords may prefer to take on full management responsibilities whilst others may choose instead to come to management arrangements with other providers or by leasing properties.

Two examples of providers developing shared housing in the social sector:

New Horizon Youth Centre (NHYC) a charity supporting homeless young people, acts as managing agent guaranteeing a reduced rent to Network Homes, one of London’s largest housing associations. NHYC issue protected licences to residents aged between 18 and 25 for a year during which they provide housing and employment related support. The properties allocated to the scheme are ex-key work accommodation and comprise four to six en-suite bedrooms, with a large shared kitchen allowing space for the residents to cook and socialise together. Network Homes benefit from making good use of otherwise hard to let stock. They retain responsibility for repairs and maintenance.

Solihull Community Housing (SCH) is an arm’s-length management organisation delivering housing management on behalf of Solihull MBC. SCH allocated four two-bedroom properties to pilot a model in which each property was let to two under 35-year-old tenants sharing a ‘flexible’ tenancy. SCH are restricted by the secure tenancy regime. Under the Housing Act 1985 individual secure tenancies cannot be issued to tenants in shared housing due to the property not being occupied as a ‘separate dwelling’. SCH therefore issue joint tenancies, with safeguards in place to overcome some of the issues that joint tenancies might present. Amongst them, SCH has agreed with the local authority that, during the pilot, a discretionary housing payment (DHP) can cover the rent during void periods which result from one room becoming vacant on the departure of one joint tenant and where liability for the full rent falls to the sitting tenant.

Promoting sharing

Alongside gathering examples of existing practice, Crisis has been engaging with social landlords, and their membership bodies, to support the future development of shared housing models in the social sector. As well as discussions about the operational decisions social landlords will need to make around tenure, rent setting, allocations and management, conversations are also arising about tenants’ willingness to share. It will not be enough for social landlords to say to those who can share: ‘you will have to, it’s the only affordable option’. Shared housing schemes are successful when tenants are committed to sharing. In order to foster this commitment, sharing needs to be framed in a positive light.

Benefits of shared housing need to be highlighted, fears need to be addressed and housing professionals need to have the relevant knowledge to discuss housing options with confidence.

Some key ways in which housing professionals can promote sharing as a positive option are:

• Promote the benefits like cheaper bills
• Provide training and pre-tenancy support through peer mentors
• Listen to what young people are saying- what will make sharing more desirable, and share this information
• Offer incentives such as savings schemes whereby clients can save for a move on deposit, or the offer of furnished properties through making links with furniture stores
• Discuss clients’ options for moving on after an allocation of shared housing
• Encourage partner organisations to deliver positive and accurate messages about shared housing too.

Developing a shared housing model

Built on best practice and learning from the private sector, Crisis developed the toolkit ‘Spare to Share’, for social landlords setting up and delivering shared housing schemes.

A revised toolkit will be launched at two events – in Leeds on 11 April, and London on the 18 April. The new toolkit reflects conversations with social landlords ahead of the application of the LHA caps. Crisis would welcome the opportunity to share best practice and learn from the experience of any social landlord who is operating a model of shared housing or considering developing one.

For more information, contact Ella Wesolowicz at ella.wesolowicz@crisis.org.uk.